In recent years, multi function peripherals (MFPs) having a printer function and a scanner function each have a Web browser installed therein to access a Web server. Accordingly, the MFP can directly operate a Web application in the Web server.
In addition, a system concerning the MFP provided with the Web browser is known, in which information about an operation screen used for performing the functions which the MFP originally has is received from the Web server and the received information is operated by using the Web browser. In this system, a user inputs an instruction to, for example, select a copy function of the MFP with the operation screen displayed in the Web browser. The input instruction is transmitted to the Web server by the Web browser of the MFP. The Web server generates a request for a copy process to the MFP in accordance with the content of the instruction transmitted from the Web browser and transmits the generated request to the MFP. The MFP receives the request for the copy process and performs the copying on the basis of the received request. The cooperation process between the MFP and the Web server described above eliminates the need to hold the information about the operation screen used for operating the MFP in the MFP. In addition, the operation screen can be changed by a method similar to that for changing a general Web application on the Web server.
A technology to authenticate a specific user as a user who is permitted to use the copy function when the specific user attempts to use the copy function of the MFP is disclosed in Patent Document 1.
According to Patent Document 1, authentication information about the user who has logged into the MFP is stored in the MFP during a period from the time when the user logs in the MFP to the time when the user logs out from the MFP. Upon selection of the copy function of the MFP by the user who has logged into the MFP, the MFP determines whether the user has a right to the selected function on the basis of the stored authentication information about the user. If the MFP determines that the user has the right to the selected copy function, the MFP permits the user to perform the copying and the user can perform the copying. The authentication information about the user is deleted when the user logs out from the MFP.